With the end of the old year, I need to get a few other odds n ends off my mind:

• Regarding the controversy over a UNM professor appearing in some S&M context. I agree the professor has some right to what we used to call privacy — we need another term for intimacy that we now casually flaunt in public. I’ll even allow that S&M may not be cruel, sadistic or violent but, in ways hard for me to imagine, an act of love. (Often, in other human contexts, when one person has power over another, love is not involved.) However, I’m disappointed that no one else has raised this question: Was a student involved? Though teachers and students have many rights, education ethics requires restraint — and not those made of leather. Teachers may love their students, but not fuck them. Teachers may discipline their students, but not physically.

• Regarding the UNM golf course controversy. I’m all for keeping it as open space. I’m also in favor of shutting down the golf course. Like all desert golf courses, it is a hideous waste of water. Turn it into a real park, saving water in the process and opening it to more visitors, as well.

• Regarding Darren White’s run for Congress. I hope people will recall that DW was Duhbya’s NM campaign manager in 2004 (& 2000?). That should be reason enough to deny him a seat in Congress. If anyone needs more, then recall that during peaceful demonstrations against the War Without End, White said, in effect, ‘let me at them’ concerning demonstrators.

• Regarding the 2008 Election in New Mexico. Thank god, Saint Pete is leaving. (Though I wish him well.) I hope the Republicans choose Pearce to run against Udall and I pray Udall crushes Pearce. In the meantime, accent on meanness, the duel between Pearce & Wilson is going to be fun to watch. mjh

PS: I’m clearing out my queue of drafts. If the next few entries (below this one, ie, earlier) seem random, they almost are; I meant to do more with them at one time.